US 20040246529A1
(19) United States
(12) Patent Application Publication (io) Pub. No.: US 2004/0246529 Al
Pruden et al. (43) Pub. Date: Dec. 9,2004
Patent Application Publication Dec. 9,2004 Sheet 2 of 3 US 2004/0246529 Al
(54) PRINTED MEDIA PRODUCTS INCLUDING DATA FILES PROVIDED IN MULTIPLE LAYERS OF ENCODED, COLORED DOTS
(76) Inventors: Benny J. Pruden, Brownstown, PA
(US); Peter W. LeMasters, Columbia,
PA (US)
Correspondence Address:
STMICROELECTRONICS, INC.
MAIL STATION 2346
1310 ELECTRONICS DRIVE
CARROLLTON, TX 75006 (US)
(21) Appl. No.: 10/455,097
(22) Filed: Jun. 5, 2003
Publication Classification
(51) Int. CI.7 G06K 19/06; G06K 7/12;
G06K 5/00
A printed media product, such as a trading card, that has a substrate and an encoded data element applied to a surface ol the substrate containing information. The encoded data element includes first, second, and third data layers with first, second, and third patterns ol encoded, colored dots defined by a binary encoding scheme. The dots ol the first, second, and third layers are different colors separately resolvable by a scanner with decoding software. The colors of the dots are cyan, yellow, and magenta, and the layers are printed so that the dots overlap. The binary encoding scheme includes a two dimensional run length limited code. The printed media product includes a graphics element that can be interpreted by a human user, and typically, the information encoded in the encoded data element layers is related to the information in the graphics element.
